Gluten Hates Me

Monday, March 19, 2012

Cilantro Pesto Chicken Tacos YUM!

FIRST: Thank you guys so much for your sweet comments and emails regarding this post. You guys are part of my support system, and funnily enough a lot of your messages rolled in while I was on the Arc Trainer! It gave me a great burst of energy!

Now, the food!

Parrish is a really good cook. It’s one of those skills that just runs in his family, and while I cook on a regular basis, when he signs up for a night I’m always blown away.

I had to work this past weekend, and after a particularly long day I came home to find an entire meal, with drinks!!!, waiting for me on our back deck.

Fresh margaritas: simply tequila with LOTS of lime juice and a dash of simple syrup

No likey tequila? Fresh lime juice mixed with water and a dash of simply syrup is equally yummy!

These were SUPER refreshing. No sour mix please, blech! Parrish made them just the way Dos Perros makes them – swoon! And they perfectly complimented the meal:

Cilantro Pesto Chicken Tacos – gluten free

He marinated the chicken for three hours and then slapped it on the grill, along with roma tomatoes and red onion for toppings, and corn tortillas for wrapping. I smothered mine in his BANGIN’ guacamole.

Parrish says the chicken is super easy to throw together, and I can vouch for the tastiness!

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Cilantro Pesto Chicken Tacos – gluten free

you’ll need:

1 pound chicken breast, cleaned and cut into tenders

2 cloves garlic

1 large bunch fresh cilantro leaves (~ 1 1/2 cups)

1/2 cup fresh parsley leaves, packed

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 limes, cut into wedges

For the marinade, add your garlic to a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Scrape down the sides and add the cilantro, parsley, salt, and pepper. Process until finely chopped. Keep the processor running, and slowly add in the oil. This creates your pesto puree. Pour this mixture into a large ziploc bag and add in the chicken. Mix and shake to coat the chicken well.

Marinate in the fridge for a minimum of 3 hours.

Heat your grill to high and add your chicken to direct heat. Cook until the meat is firm and your juices run clear, around 8-10 minutes. Turn once, around the 4-5 minute mark.

Optional: grill slices of roma tomatoes and red onion too! Keep on the heat until the tomatoes soften and the onions get grill marks. You can also grill your tortillas.

Once you remove the chicken from the grill, squeeze lime juice onto each piece before adding to your taco.

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So did you spend the weekend watching basketball?!

We did!! Aside from Duke murdering my one segment of my bracket…

I am walloping Parrish!!

This is my first year making a bracket, and I’ve actually been surprised by how much more fun all this basketball is now that I’m invested in other teams to help my bracket.